Artists and artlovers alike, wonder how paintings are priced.
Market research.
Consider other artists’ work that is comparable in style, medium, color, size, etc.
Check if they are established in the market or starting out.
Set a reasonable hourly wage and the cost of materials when pricing art – that includes framing, shipping and commission charges.
If you are just starting out
Basic pricing strategy: 1
Set an hourly rate Multiply this by the hours spent creating an artwork
Costs of materials For example, if you decided on an hourly rate of £10 and spent 20 hours creating your piece, the materials cost £30, your calculation would look like this: 20 hours x £10 hourly rate = £200 Material costs = £30
Artwork price = £200 + £30 = £230
Basic pricing strategy: 2
Use a per square inch formula.
Of course there are always variables when coming to the total price of a painting including the media used. Is it an oil painting, an acrylic painting or mixed media.
The paint can actually cost roughly the same depending on the brand but an oil painting will take months to dry and that has to be accounted for. A mixed media painting may have gold leaf introduced into the painting or another expensive material.
Some paintings will take a considerable amount of paint to get to the finished product, and if the paint is mixed with another medium this has to be priced into the equation.
Other things to take into consideration is the substrate. Each one offers a unique look and style, whether it’s paper or canvas or maybe an alternative substrate like wood, metal or acrylic.
These will all have different price points.
Remember if you have bought a frame you will need to charge base rate + commission chargeThis can all get a little confusing but working to a formula may take some of the stress out of it.
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Copyright © Kris Mercer, 2021
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